University  of  California. 

FROM   THE   LIBRARY   OF 

DR.    FRANCIS     LIEBKK. 
Professor  of  History  and  Law  in  Coliimbin  College,  New  York. 


THE  GIFT  01 


MICHAEL    REESE, 

Of  San  Fran 
1ST  3. 


AN 


ORATION 


DELIVERED  BEFORE   THE 


CITIZENS  OF  CHARLESTOWN 


ON   THE 


FIFTY-SECOND   ANNIVERSARY 


OF    THE 


SPertaration  of  tfte  Kntiejientrence 

OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES  OP  AMERICA. 


BY  EDWARD   EVERETT. 


CHARLESTOWN  : 

WHEILDON    AND     RAYMOND. 

BOSTON  : 

HILLIARD,    GRAY,    LITTLE    AND    WILKINS, 
1823. 


DISTRICT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  TO  WIT : 

District  Clerk's  Office. 

BE  it  remembered,  that  on  the  tenth  day  of  July,  A.  D.  1828,  and  in  the  fifty 
third  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  Wheildori  #  Ray 
mond,  of  the  said  District,  have  deposited  in  this  office,  the  title  of  a  book,  the 
tight  whereof  they  claim  as  proprietors,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit : — 

"  An  Oration  delivered  before  the  Citizens  of  Charlestown,  on  the  fifty-second 
anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica.  By  Edward  Everett." 

In  conformity  to  the  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  entitled,  "  An 
Act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and 
books,  to  th«  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  men 
tioned,"  and  also  to  an  Act,  entitled,  "  An  Act  supplementary  to  an  Act,  entitled, 
'An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts 
and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietor  of  such  copies  during  the  times  therein 
mentioned  ;'  and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving 
and  etching  historical  and  other  prints." 

JNO.  W.  DAVIS, 

Clerk  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CHARLESTOWN: 
From  the  Aurora  Piess— Wheildon  and  Raymond. 


Charlestown,  July  7,  1828. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  cele 
bration  of  the  Fourth  of  July,  it  was 

Voted,  That  Dr  ABRAHAM  R.  THOMPSON,  and  Mr  DAVID  DEV- 
ENS  be  a  Committee  to  present  to  the  Hon.  EDWARD  EVERETT, 
the  thanks  of  this  Committee,  in  behalf  of  their  fellow-citizens,  for 
the  ORATION  delivered  by  him,  on  the  recent  anniversary  of  our 
National  Independence,  and  to  request  a  copy  of  the  same  for  the 
Press.  Attest — 

WILLIAM  W.  WHEILDON,  Secretary. 


ORATION. 


FELLOW-CITIZENS  : 

THE  event,  which  we  commemorate,  is  all 
important,  not  merely  in  our  own  annals,  but  in 
those  of  mankind.  The  sententious  English  poet 
has  declared,  that  "the  proper  study  of  mankind 
is  man;"  and  of  all  inquiries,  which  have  for 
their  object  the  temporal  concerns  of  our  nature, 
unquestionably  the  history  of  our  fellow  beings 
is  among  the  most  interesting.  But  not  all  the 
chapters  of  human  history  are  alike  important. 
The  annals  of  our  race  have  been  filled  up  with 
incidents,  which  concern  not,  or  at  least  ought 
not  to  concern  the  great  company  of  mankind. 
History,  as  it  has  often  been  written,  is  the  gene 
alogy  of  princes, — the  field-book  of  conquerors, — 
and  the  fortunes  of  our  fellow  men  have  been 
treated,  only  so  far  as  they  have  been  affected 
by  the  influence  of  the  great  masters  and  de 
stroyers  of  the  race.  Such  history  is,  I  will  not 
say  a  worthless  study,  for  it  is  necessary  for  us 


6 

to  know  the  dark  side,  as  well  as  the  bright  side 
of  our  condition.  But  it  is  a  melancholy  and 
heartless  study,  which  fills  the  bosom  of  the 
philanthropist  and  the  friend  of  liberty  with 
sorrow. 

But  the  History  of  Liberty, — the  history  of 
men  struggling  to  be  free, — the  history  of  men 
who  have  acquired,  and  are  exercising  their 
freedom, — the  history  of  those  great  movements 
in  the  world,  by  which  liberty  has  been  estab 
lished,  diffused,  and  perpetuated,  form  a  subject, 
which  we  cannot  contemplate  too  closely, — to 
which  we  cannot  cling  too  fondly.  This  is  the 
real  history  of  man, — of  the  human  family, — of 
rational,  immortal  beings. 

This  theme  is  one; — the  free  of  all  climes  and 
nations,  are  themselves  a  people.  Their  annals 
are  the  history  of  freedom.  Those  who  fell  vic 
tims  to  their  principles,  in  the  civil  convulsions 
of  the  short-lived  republics  of  Greece,  or  who 
sunk  beneath  the  power  of  her  invading  foes ; 
those  who  shed  their  blood  for  liberty  amidst  the 
ruins  of  the  Roman  republic  5  the  victims  of 
Austrian  tyranny  in  Switzerland,  and  of  Span 
ish  tyranny  in  Holland ;  the  solitary  champions 
or  the  united  bands  of  high-minded  and  patriotic 
men,  who  have,  in  any  region  or  age,  struggled 
and  suffered  in  this  great  cause,  belong  to  that 


PEOPLE  OF  THE  FREE,  whose  fortunes  and  pro 
gress  are  the  most  noble  theme  which  man  can 
contemplate. 

The  theme  belongs  to  us.  We  inhabit  a 
country,  which  has  been  signalized  in  the  great 
history  of  freedom.  We  live  under  institutions, 
more  favorable  to  its  diffusion,  than  any  which 
the  world  has  elsewhere  known.  A  succession 
of  incidents,  of  rare  curiosity  and  almost  mysteri 
ous  connexion,  has  marked  out  America  as  the 
great  theatre  of  political  reform.  Many  circum 
stances  stand  recorded  in  our  annals,  connected 
with  the  assertion  of  human  rights,  which,  were 
we  not  familiar  with  them,  would  fill  even  our 
own  minds  with  amazement. 

The  theme  belongs  to  the  day.  We  celebrate 
the  return  of  the  day,  on  which  our  separate 
national  existence  was  declared ;  the  day  when 
the  momentous  experiment  was  commenced,  by 
which  the  world,  and  posterity,  and  we  our 
selves  were  to  be  taught,  how  far  a  nation  of 
men  can  be  trusted  with  self-government, — how 
far  life,  and  liberty,  and  property  are  safe, — 
and  the  progress  of  social  improvement  secure, 
under  the  influence  of  laws,  made  by  those  who 
are  to  obey  the  laws ;  the  day,  when,  for  the 
first  time  in  the  world,  a  numerous  people  was 
ushered  into  the  family  of  nations,  organized  on 


8 

the  principle  of  the  political  equality  of  all  the 
citizens. 

Let  us  then,  fellow- citizens,  devote  the  time 
which  has  been  set  apart  for  this  portion  of  the 
duties  of  the  day,  to  a  hasty  review  of  the  his 
tory  of  Liberty,  especially  to  a  contemplation  of 
some  of  those  astonishing  incidents,  which  pre 
ceded,  accompanied,  or  have  followed  the  settle 
ment  of  America,  and  the  establishment  of  our 
institutions  ;  and  which  plainly  indicate  a  general 
tendency  and  co-operation  of  things,  toward  the 
erection,  in  this  country,  of  the  great  monitorial 
school  of  human  freedom. 

We  hear  much  in  our  early  days  of  the  liberty 
of  Greece  and  Rome; — a  great  and  complicated 
subject,  which  this  is  not  the  time  nor  the  place  to 
attempt  to  disentangle.  True  it  is,  that  we  find, 
in  the  annals  of  both  these  nations,  bright  exam 
ples  of  public  virtue; — the  record  of  faithful 
friends  of  their  fellow  men, — of  strenuous  foes  of 
oppression  at  home  or  abroad; — and  admirable 
precedents  of  popular  strength.  But  we  no 
where  find  in  them  the  account  of  a  populous 
country,  blessed  with  institutions  securing  the 
enjoyment  and  transmission  of  regulated  liberty. 
In  freedom,  as  in  most  other  things,  the  ancient 
nations,  while  they  made  surprisingly  near  ap 
proaches  to  the  truth,  yet  for  want  of  some  one 


9 

great  and  essential  principle  or  instrument,  came 
utterly  short  of  it,  in  practice.  They  had  pro 
found  and  elegant  scholars,  but  for  want  of  the 
art  of  printing,  they  could  not  send  information  out 
among  the  people,  where  alone  it  is  of  great  use, 
in  reference  to  human  happiness.  Some  of  them 
ventured  boldly  to  sea,  and  possessed  an  aptitude 
for  commerce,  yet  for  want  of  the  mariner's 
compass,  they  could  not  navigate  distant  oceans, 
but  crept  for  ages  along  the  shores  of  the  Medi 
terranean.  In  freedom,  they  established  popular 
institutions  in  single  cities,  but  for  want  of  the 
representative  principle,  they  could  not  extend 
these  institutions  over  a  large  and  populous 
country.  But,  as  a  large  and  populous  country, 
generally  speaking,  can  alone  possess  strength 
enough  for  self-defence,  this  want  w^as  fatal. 
The  freest  of  their  cities,  accordingly,  fell  a  prey, 
.sooner  or  later,  to  the  invading  army,  either  of 
a  foreign  tyrant  or  of  a  domestic  traitor. 

In  this  way,  liberty  made  no  firm  progress  in 
the  ancient  states.  It  was  a  speculation  of  the 
philosopher  and  an  experiment  of  the  patriot;  but 
not  a  natural  state  of  society.  The  patriots  of 
Greece  and  Rome  had  indeed  succeeded  in  en 
lightening  the  public  mind,  on  one  of  the  cardi 
nal  points  of  freedom,  the  necessity  of  an  elected 
executive.  The  name  and  the  office  of  a  king 


10 

were  long  esteemed  not  only  something  to  be  re 
jected,  but  something  rude  and  uncivilized,  be 
longing  to  savage  nations,  ignorant  of  the  rights 
of  man,  as  understood  in  cultivated  states.  The 
word  tyrant,  which  originally  meant  no  more  than 
monarch,  wras  soon  made,  by  the  Greeks,  synon- 
irnous  with  oppressor  and  despot,  as  it  has  con 
tinued  ever  since.  When  the  first  Csesar  made 
his  encroachments  on  the  liberties  of  Rome,  the 
patriots  even  of  that  age,  did  boast  that  they  had 


heard  their  fathers  say, 


"  There  was  a  Brutus  once,  that  would  have  brooked 
"  The  eternal  devil,  to  keep  his  state  in  Rome, 
rt  As  easily  as  a  King." 

So  deeply  rooted  was  this  horror  of  the  very 
name  of  king  in  the  bosom  of  the  Romans,  that 
under  their  w^orst  tyrants,  and  in  the  darkest 
days,  the  forms  of  the  republic  were  preserved. 
There  \vas  no  name,  under  Nero  and  Caligula, 
for  the  office  of  monarch.  The  individual  who 
filled  the  office  was  called  Caesar  and  Augustus, 
after  the  first  and  second  of  the  line.  The  word 
emperor,  implied  no  more  than  general.  The  offi 
ces  of  consul  and  tribune  were  kept  up  ;  although 
if  the  choice  did  not  fall,  as  it  frequently  did,  on 
the  emperor,  it  was  conferred  on  his  favorite 
officer,  and  sometimes  on  his  favorite  horse.  The 
senate  continued  to  meet  and  affected  to  delibe- 


11 

rate  ;  and  in  short,  the  empire  began  and  con 
tinued  a  pure  military  despotism,  engrafted  by  a 
sort  of  permanent  usurpation,  on  the  forms  and 
names  of  the  ancient  republic.  The  spirit  in 
deed  of  liberty  had  long  since  ceased  to  animate 
these  ancient  forms  ;  and  when  the  barbarous 
tribes  of  Central  Asia  and  Northern  Europe 
burst  into  the  Roman  Empire,  they  swept  away 
the  poor  remnant  of  these  forms,  and  established 
upon  their  ruins,  the  system  of  feudal  monarchy, 
from  which  all  the  modern  kingdoms  are  de 
scended.  Efforts  were  made,  in  the  middle  ages, 
by  the  petty  republics  of  Italy,  to  regain  the  in 
herent  rights,  which  a  long  prescription  had 
wrested  from  them.  But  the  remedy  of  bloody 
civil  wars  between  neighboring  cities,  was  plain 
ly  more  disastrous  than  the  disease  of  subjection. 
The  struggles  of  freedom,  in  these  little  states, 
resulted  much  as  they  had  done  in  Greece  ;  ex 
hibiting  brilliant  examples  of  individual  character 
and  short  intervals  of  public  prosperity,  but  no 
permanent  progress  in  the  organization  of  liberal 
institutions. 

At  length  a  new  era  seemed  to  begin.  The 
art  of  printing  was  discovered.  The  capture  of 
Constantinople,  by  the  Turks,  drove  the  learned 
Christians  of  that  city  into  Italy,  and  letters  re 
vived.  A  general  agitation  of  public  sentiment^ 


12 

in  various  parts  of  Europe,  ended  in  the  reli 
gious  reformation.  A  spirit  of  adventure  had 
awakened  in  the  maritime  nations,  and  projects 
of  remote  discovery  were  started  5  and  the  signs 
of  the  times  seemed  to  augur  a  great  political 
regeneration.  But,  as  if  to  blast  this  hope  in  its 
bud  5  as  if  to  counterbalance  at  once  the  opera 
tion  of  these  springs  of  improvement ;  as  if  to 
secure  the  permanence  of  the  political  slavery, 
which  existed  in  every  country  of  that  part  of 
the  globe,  at  the  moment  when  it  was  most 
threatened  ;  the  last  blow  at  the  same  time  was 
given  to  the  remaining  power  of  the  Great  Bar 
ons, — the  sole  check  on  the  despotism  of  the 
monarch  which  the  feudal  system  provided;  and  a 
new  institution  was  firmly  established  in  Europe, 
prompt,  efficient  and  terrible  in  its  operation, 
beyond  anything  which  the  modern  world  had 
seen, — I  mean  the  system  of  standing  armies  ; — 
in  other  words,  a  military  force,  organized  and 
paid  to  support  the  king  on  his  throne,  and  re 
tain  the  people  in  their  subjection. 

From  this  moment,  the  fate  of  freedom  in 
Europe  was  sealed.  Something  might  be  hoped 
from  the  amelioration  of  manners,  in  softening 
away  the  more  barbarous  parts  of  political  des 
potism.  But  nothing  was  to  be  expected,  in  the 
form  of  liberal  institutions,  founded  on  principle. 


13 

The  ancient  and  the  modern  forms  of  political 
servitude  were  thus  combined.  The  Roman 
emperors,  as  I  have  hinted,  maintained  them 
selves  simply  by  military  force,  in  nominal  ac 
cordance  with  the  forms  of  the  republic.  Their 
power,  (to  speak  in  modern  terms),  was  no  part 
of  the  constitution  even  of  their  own  times.  The 
feudal  sovereigns  possessed  a  constitutional  pre 
cedence  in  the  state,  which,  after  the  diffusion 
of  Christianity,  they  claimed  by  the  grace  of 
God ;  but  their  power,  in  point  of  fact,  was 
circumscribed  by  that  of  their  brother  barons. 
With  the  firm  establishment  of  standing  armies, 
was  consummated  a  system  of  avowed  despot 
ism,  transcending  all  forms  of  the  popular  will, 
existing  by  divine  right,  unbalanced  by  any  ef 
fectual  check  in  the  state,  and  upheld  by  milita 
ry  power.  It  needs  but  a  glance  at  the  state  of 
Europe,  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury,  to  see,  that,  notwithstanding  the  revival 
and  diffusion  of  letters,  the  progress  of  the  refor 
mation,  and  the  improvement  of  manners,  the 
lone  of  the  people,  in  the  most  enlightened  coun 
tries,  was  more  abject  than  it  had  been  since  the 
days  of  the  Caesars.  England  was  certainly  not 
the  least  free  of  all  the  countries  in  Europe,  but 
who  can  patiently  listen  to  the  language  with 
which  Henry  the  VIII.  chides,  and  Elizabeth 


14 

scolds  the  lords  and  commons  of  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain. 

All  hope  of  liberty  then  seemed  lost  ;  in 
Europe  all  hope  was  lost.  A  disastrous  turn 
had  been  given  to  the  general  movement  of 
things  ;  and  in  the  disclosure  of  the  fatal  secret 
of  standing  armies,  the  future  political  servitude 
of  man  was  apparently  decided. 

But  a  change  is  destined  to  come  over  the 
face  of  things,  as  romantic  in  its  origin,  as  it  is 
wonderful  in  its  progress.  All  is  not  lost ;  on 
the  contrary  all  is  saved,  at  the  moment,  when 
all  seemed  involved  in  ruin.  Let  me  just  allude 
to  the  incidents,  connected  with  this  change,  as 
they  have  lately  been  described,  by  an  accom 
plished  countryman,  now  beyond  the  sea.* 

About  half  a  league  from  the  little  sea-port  of 
Palos,  in  the  province  of  Andalusia,  in  Spain, 
stands  a  convent  dedicated  to  St  Mary.  Some 
time  in  the  year  1486,  a  poor  way-faring  stran 
ger,  accompanied  by  a  small  boy,  makes  his  ap 
pearance,  on  foot,  at  the  gate  of  this  convent, 
and  begs  of  the  porter  a  little  bread  and  water  for 
his  child.  This  friendless  stranger  is  COLUMBUS. 
Brought  up  in  the  hardy  pursuit  of  a  mariner, 
with  no  other  relaxation  from  its  toils,  but  that 

*  living's  Life  of  Columbus. 


15 

of  an  occasional  service  in  the  fleets  of  his  native 
country,  with  the  burden  of  fifty  years  upon  his 
frame,  the  unprotected  foreigner  makes  his  suit 
to  the  haughty  sovereigns  of  Portugal  and  Spain. 
He  tells  them,  that  the  broad  flat  earth  on 
which  we  tread,  is  round  5 — he  proposes,  with 
what  seems  a  sacrilegious  hand,  to  lift  the  veil 
which  had  hung,  from  the  creation  of  the  world, 
over  the  floods  of  the  ocean  ; — he  promises,  by  ,a 
western  course,  to  reach  the  eastern  shores  of 
Asia, — the  region  of  gold,  and  diamonds,  and 
spices ;  to  extend  the  sovereignty  of  Christian 
kings  over  realms  and  nations  hitherto  unap- 
proached  and  unknown  ; — and  ultimately  to  per 
form  a  new  crusade  to  the  holy  land,  and  ransom 
the  sepulchre  of  our  Saviour,  with  the  new 
found  gold  of  the  east. 

Who  shall  believe  the  chimerical  pretension  ? 
The  learned  men  examine  it,  and  pronounce  it 
futile.  The  royal  pilots  have  ascertained  by  their 
own  experience,  that  it  is  groundless.  The 
priesthood  have  considered  it,  and  have  pro 
nounced  that  sentence  so  terrific  where  the  in 
quisition  reigns,  that  it  is  a  wicked  heresy  ; — the 
common  sense,  and  popular  feeling  of  men,  have 
been  roused  first  into  disdainful  and  then  into  in 
dignant  exercise,  toward  a  project,  which,  by  a 
strange  new  chimera,  represented  one  half  of 


16 

mankind   walking   with   their   feet   toward  the 
other  half. 

Such  is  the  reception  which  his  proposal 
meets.  For  a  long  time,  the  great  cause  of  hu 
manity,  depending  on  the  discovery  of  these  fail- 
continents,  is  involved  in  the  fortitude,  persever 
ance,  and  spirit  of  the  solitary  stranger,  already 
past  the  time  of  life,  when  the  pulse  of  adven 
ture  beats  full  and  high.  If  he  sink  beneath  the 
indifference  of  the  great,  the  sneers  of  the  wise, 
the  enmity  of  the  mass,  and  the  persecution  of  a 
host  of  adversaries,  high  and  low,  and  give  up 
the  fruitless  and  thankless  pursuit  of  his  noble 
vision,  what  a  hope  for  mankind  is  blasted !  But 
he  does  not  sink.  He  shakes  off  his  paltry  ene 
mies,  as  the  lion  shakes  the  dew-drops  from  his 
mane.  That  consciousness  of  motive  and  of 
strength,  which  always  supports  the  man  who  is 
worthy  to  be  supported,  sustains  him  in  his 
hour  of  trial ;  and  at  length,  after  years  of  ex 
pectation,  importunity,  and  hope  deferred,  he 
launches  forth  upon  the  unknown  deep,  to  dis 
cover  a  new  world,  under  the  patronage  of  Fer 
dinand  and  Isabella. 

The  patronage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella! — 
Let  us  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  auspices  under 
which  our  country  was  brought  to  light.  The 
patronage  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella!  Yes, 


17 

doubtless,  they  have  fitted  out  a  convoy,  worthy 
the  noble  temper  of  the  man,  and  the  gallantry 
of  his  project.  Convinced  at  length,  that  it  is  no 
daydream  of  a  heated  visionary,  the  fortunate 
sovereigns  of  Castile  and  Arragon,  returning 
from  their  triumph  over  the  last  of  the  Moors, 
and  putting  a  victorious  close  to  a  war  of  seven 
centuries'  duration,  have  no  doubt  prepared  an 
expedition  of  well  appointed  magnificence,  to  go 
out  upon  this  splendid  search  for  other  worlds. 
They  have  made  ready,  no  doubt,  their  proudest 
galleon,  to  waft  the  heroic  adventurer  upon  his 
path  of  glory,  with  a  whole  armada  of  kindred 
spirits,  to  share  his  toils  and  honors. 

Alas,  from  his  ancient  resort  of  Palos,  which 
lie  first  approached  as  a  mendicant, — in  three  frail 
barks,  of  which  two  were  without  decks, — the 
great  discoverer  of  America  sails  forth  on  the 
first  voyage  across  the  unexplored  waters.  Such 
is  the  patronage  of  kings.  A  few  years  pass  by  ; 
he  discovers  a  new  hemisphere  5  the  wildest  of 
his  visions  fade  into  insignificance,  before  the  re 
ality  of  their  fulfilment ;  he  finds  a  new  world 
for  Castile  and  Leon,  and  comes  back  to  Spain, 
loaded  with  iron  fetters.  Republics,  it  is  said, 
are  ungrateful  5 — such  are  the  rewards  of  mon- 
archs. 

With    this    humble    instrumentality,    did    it 
3 


18 

please  Providence  to  prepare  the  theatre  for 
those  events,  by  which  a  new  dispensation  of 
liberty  was  to  be  communicated  to  man.  But 
much  is  yet  to  transpire,  before  even  the  com 
mencement  can  be  made,  in  the  establishment  of 
those  institutions,  by  which  this  great  object  in 
human  happiness  wras  to  be  effected.  The  dis 
covery  of  America  had  taken  place  under  the 
auspices  of  the  government  most  disposed  for 
maritime  adventure,  and  best  enabled  to  extend 
a  helping  arm,  such  as  it  was,  to  the  enterprise 
of  the  great  discoverer.  But  it  was  not  from  the 
vSame  quarter,  that  the  elements  of  liberty  could 
be  derived,  to  be  introduced,  expanded,  and  rear 
ed  in  the  new  world.  Causes,  upon  which  I  need 
not  dwell,  made  it  impossible,  that  the  great 
political  reform  should  go  forth  from  Spain. 
For  this  object,  a  new  train  of  incidents,  was 
preparing  in  another  quarter. 

The  only  real  advances  which  modern  Europe 
had  made  in  freedom,  had  been  made  in  Eng 
land.  The  cause  of  liberty  in  that  country  was 
persecuted,  was  subdued  5  but  not  annihilated, 
nor  trampled  out  of  being.  Out  of  the  choicest 
of  its  suffering  champions,  were  collected  the 
brave  bands  of  emigrants,  who  first  went  out  on 
the  second,  the  more  precious  voyage  of  discov 
ery, — the  discovery  of  a  land,  where  liberty  and 
its  consequent  blessings,  might  be  established. 


19 

A  late  writer  in  the  London  Quarterly  Re 
view,*  has  permitted  himself  to  say,   that  the 
original  establishment  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  of  the  colony  of  Botany  Bay,  were  pretty 
nearly  modelled  on  the  same  plan.     The  mean 
ing  of  this  slanderous  insinuation,   is,   that  the 
United  States  were  settled  by  deported  convicts, 
in  like  manner  as  New  South  Wales  has  been 
settled  by  felons,  whose  punishment  by  death  has 
been  commuted  into  transportation.     It  is  doubt 
less  true,  that,  at  one  period,  the  English  gov 
ernment  was  in  the  habit  of  condemning  to  hard 
labor  as  servants,   in  the  colonies,   a  portion  of 
those,  who  had  received  the  sentence  of  the  law. 
If  this    practice    makes    it    proper    to   compare 
America  with  Botany  Bay,  the  same  compari 
son  might  be  made  of  England  herself,  before 
the  practice  of  transportation  began,  and  even 
now  ;  inasmuch  as  a  large  portion  of  her  con 
victs,   are  held  to  labor,  within  her  own  bosom. 
In  one  sense,  indeed,  we  might  doubt  whether 
the   allegation  were  more  of  a  reproach  or   a 
compliment.    During  the  time  that  the  coloniza 
tion  of  America  was  going  on  the  most  rapidly, 
the  best  citizens  of  England, — if  it  be  any  part 
of  good  citizenship  to  resist  oppression, — were 

*For  January  1828. 


immured  in  her  prisons  of  state,  or  lying  at  the 
mercy  of  the  law.* 

Such  were  the  convicts  by  which  America 
was  settled.  Men  convicted  of  fearing  God, 
more  than  they  feared  man  5  of  sacrificing  pro 
perty,  ease,  and  all  the  comforts  of  life,  to  a 
sense  of  duty,  and  the  dictates  of  conscience : — 
men  convicted  of  pure  lives,  brave  hearts,  and 
simple  manners.  The  enterprize  was  led  by 
RALEIGH,  the  chivalrous  convict,  who  unfortu 
nately  believed  that  his  royal  master  had  the 
heart  of  a  man,  and  would  not  let  a  sentence  of 
death,  which  had  slumbered  for  sixteen  years, 
revive  and  take  effect,  after  so  long  an  interval 
of  employment  and  favor.  But  nullum  tempus 
occurrit  regi.  The  felons  who  followed  next, 
were  the  heroic  and  long  suffering  church  of 
ROBINSON,  atLeyden, — CARVER,  BREWSTER, 
BRADFORD,  and  their  pious  associates,  convict 
ed  of  worshipping  God  according  to  the  dictates 
of  their  consciences,  and  of  giving  up  all, — coun 
try,  property,  and  the  tombs  of  their  fathers, — 
that  they  might  do  so,  unmolested.  Not  content 
with  having  driven  the  puritans  from  her  soil, 
England  next  enacted,  or  put  in  force,  the  op 
pressive  laws,  which  colonized  Maryland  with 

*See  Mr  Walsh's  "United  States  and  Great  Britain,"  Sec.  If. 


21 

Catholics,    and    Pennsylvania    with    Quakers* 
Nor  was  it  long  before  the  American  plantations 
were  recruited   by  the  Germans,   convicted  of 
inhabiting  the   Palatinate,   when   the  merciless 
armies  of  Louis  XIV.  were  turned  into  that  de 
voted  region ;  and  by  the  Huguenots,  convicted 
of  holding  what  they  deemed  the  simple  truth  of 
Christianity,    when    it    pleased    the   mistress    of 
Louis  XIV.  to  be  very  zealous  for  the  Catholic 
faith.     These  were  followed,  in  the  next  age,  by 
the   Highlanders,   convicted  of  loyalty  to  their 
hereditary  prince,  on  the  plains  of  Culloden  5  and 
the   Irish,   convicted  of  supporting  the  rights  of 
their  country,     against  an    oppressive   external 
power.     Such  are  the  convicts  by  whom  Amer 
ica  was  settled. 

In  this  way,  whatsoever  was  really  valuable 
in  European  character,  the  resolute  industry  of 
one  nation,  the  inventive  skill  and  curious  arts 
of  another,  the  lofty  enterprise  of  another, — the 
courage,  conscience,  principle,  self-denial  of  all, 
were  winnowed  out,  by  the  policy  of  the  prevailing 
governments,  little  knowing  what  they  did,  as  a 
precious  seed,  wherewith  to  plant  the  soil  of 
America.  By  this  singular  coincidence  of  events, 
our  beloved  country  was  constituted  the  great 
asylum  of  suffering  virtue  and  oppressed  human 
ity.  It  could  now  no  longer  be  said — as  it  was 


22 


of  the  Roman  Empire,  —  that  mankind  were 
shut  up,  as  if  in  a  vast  prison-house,  from  whence 
there  was  no  escape.  The  political  and  ecclesi 
astical  oppressors  of  the  world,  allowed  their  per 
secution  to  find  a  limit,  at  the  shores  of  the  At 
lantic.  They  scarce  ever  attempted  to  pursue 
their  victims  beyond  its  protecting  waters.  It  is 
plain  that,  in  this  way  alone,  the  design  of  Prov 
idence  could  be  accomplished,  which  provided 
for  the  erection  of  one  Catholic  school  of  free 
dom,  in  the  western  hemisphere.  For  it  must  not 
be  a  freedom  of  too  sectional  and  peculiar  a  cast. 
On  the  stock  of  the  English  civilization,  as  the 
general  basis,  were  to  be  engrafted  the  languages, 
the  arts,  and  the  tastes  of  the  other  civilized  na 
tions.  A  tie  of  consanguinity  must  connect  the 
members  of  every  family  of  Europe,  with  some 
portion  of  our  happy  land  ;  so  that  in  all  their 
trials  and  disasters,  they  may  look  safely  beyond 
the  ocean,  for  a  refuge.  The  victims  of  power, 
of  intolerance,  of  war,  of  disaster,  in  every  other 
part  of  the  world,  must  feel,  that  they  may  find 
a  kindred  home,  within  our  limits.  Kings, 
whom  the  perilous  convulsions  of  the  day  have 
shaken  from  their  thrones,  must  find  a  safe  re 
treat  5  and  the  needy  emigrant  must  at  least  not 
fail  of  his  bread  and  water,  were  it  only  for  the 
sake  of  the  great  discoverer,  who  was  himself 


23 

obliged  to  beg  them.     On  this  corner  stone  the 
temple  of  our  freedom  was  laid  from  the  first ; 

"  For  .here  the  exile  met,  from  every  clime, 
"  And  spoke  in  friendship,  every  distant  tongue  ; 
Cf  Men,  from  the  blood  of  warring  Europe  sprung^ 
"  Were  here  divided  by  the  running  brook." 

This  peculiarity  of  our  population,  which  some 
have  thought  a  misfortune,  is  in  reality  one  of 
the  happiest  features  of  the  American  character. 
Without  it,  there  would  have  been  no  obvious 
means  of  introducing  a  new  school  of  civilization 
into  the  world.  Had  we  been  the  unmixed  de- 
.scendants  of  any  one  nation  of  Europe,  w^e  should 
have  retained  a  moral  and  intellectual  dependence 
on  that  nation,  even  after  the  dissolution  of  our 
political  connexion  should  have  taken  place.  It 
was  sufficient  for  the  great  purposes  in  view, 
that  the  earliest  settlements  wrere  made  by  men, 
who  had  fought  the  battles  of  liberty  in  England, 
and  who  brought  with  them  the  rudiments  of 
constitutional  freedom,  to  a  region,  where  no 
deep-rooted  prescriptions  would  prevent  their  de- 
velopement.  Instead  of  marring  the  symmetry 
of  our  social  system,  it  is  one  of  its  most  attrac 
tive  and  beautiful  peculiarities,  that,  with  the 
prominent  qualities  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  charac 
ter,  inherited  from  the  English  settlers,  we  have 
an  admixture  of  almost  everything  that  is  valua- 


24 

ble  in  the  character  of  most  of  the  other  states 
of  Europe. 

Such  was  the  first  preparation  for  the  great 
political  reform,  of  which  America  was  to  be  the 
theatre.  The  colonies  of  England, — of  a  coun 
try,  where  the  sanctity  of  laws  and  the  constitu 
tion  is  professedly  recognized, — the  North  Amer 
ican  colonies,  were  protected,  from  the  first, 
against  the  introduction  of  the  unmitigated  des 
potism,  which  prevailed  in  the  Spanish  settle 
ments  ; — the  continuance  of  which,  down  to  the 
moment  of  their  late  revolt,  prevented  the  educa 
tion  of  those  provinces,  in  the  exercise  of  political 
rights  ;  and,  in  that  way,  has  thrown  them  into 
the  revolution,  inexperienced  and  unprepared, — 
victims,  some  of  them,  of  a  domestic  anarchy, 
scarcely  less  grievous  than  the  foreign  yoke  they 
have  thrown  off.  While,  however,  the  settlers 
of  America  brought  with  them  the  principles  and 
feelings — the  political  habits  and  temper — which 
defied  the  encroachments  of  arbitrary  power,  and 
made  it  necessary,  when  they  were  to  be  oppress 
ed, — that  they  should  be  oppressed  under  the 
forms  of  law  ;  it  was  a  necessary  consequence 
of  the  state  of  things, — a  result  perhaps  of  the 
very  nature  of  a  colonial  government, — that  they 
should  be  thrown  into  a  position  of  controversy 
with  the  mother  country  5  and  thus  become  fa- 


25 

miliar  with  the  whole  energetic  docfcrine  and  dis 
cipline  of  resistance.  This  formed  and  hardened 
the  temper  of  the  colonists,  and  trained  them  up 
to  a  spirit,  meet  for  the  conflict  of  separation. 

On  the  other  hand,  by  what  I  had  almost  call 
ed  the  accidental  circumstance,  but  which  ought 
rather  to  be  considered  as  a  leading  incident  in 
the  great  train  of  events,  connected  with  the  es 
tablishment  of  constitutional  freedom  in  this  coun 
try,  it  came  to  pass,  that  nearly  all  the  colonies — 
founded  as  they  were  on  the  charters,  granted 
to  corporate  institutions,  in  England,  which  had 
for  their  object,  the  pursuit  of  those  branches  of 
industry  and  trade,  pertinent  to  a  new  planta 
tion, — adopted  a  regular  representative  system  ; 
by  which, — as  in  ordinary  civil  corporations. — 
the  affairs  of  the  community  are  decided  by  the 
will  and  voices  of  its  members,  or  those  author 
ized  by  them.  It  was  no  device  of  the  parent 
governments,  which  gave  us  our  colonial  assem 
blies.  It  was  no  refinement  of  philosophical 
statesmen,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  our  re 
publican  institutions  of  government.  They  grew 
up,  as  it  were,  by  accident,  on  the  simple  foun 
dation  I  have  named.  "A  house  of  burgesses," 
says  Hutchinson,  "  broke  out  in  Virginia,  in 
1620 ;"  and  "although  there  was  no  color  for 
it  in  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  a  house  of 
4 


2G 

deputies  appeared  suddenly  in  1634."  "Lord 
Say,"  observes  the  same  historian,  "tempted 
the  principal  men  of  Massachusetts,  to  make 
themselves  and  their  heirs,  nobles  and  absolute 
governors  of  a  new  colony,  but  under  this  plan, 
they  could  find  no  people  to  follow  them." 

At  this  early  period,  and  in  this  simple,  un 
pretending  manner,  was  introduced  to  the  wrorld, 
that  greatest  discovery  in  political  science,  or 
political  practice,  a  representative  republican 
system.  "The  discovery  of  the  system  of  the 
representative  republic,"  says  M.  de  Chateau 
briand,  "is  one  of  the  greatest  political  events 
that  ever  occurred."  But  it  is  not  one  of  the 
greatest,  it  is  the  very  greatest ; — and  combined 
with  another  principle,  to  which  I  shall  present 
ly  advert,  and  which  is  also  the  invention  of  the 
United  States,  it  marks  an  era  in  human  things; 
—a  discovery  in  the  great  science  of  social  hap 
piness  compared  with  which,  everything,  that 
terminates  in  the  temporal  interests  of  man, 
sinks  into  insignificance. 

Thus  then  was  the  foundation  laid,  thus  was 
the  preparation  commenced,  of  the  grand  politi 
cal  regeneration.  For  about  a  century  and  a 
half,  this  preparation  was  carried  on.  Without 
any  of  the  temptations,  which  drew  the  Spanish 
adventurers  to  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  colonies 


21 

throve  almost  beyond  example,  and  in  the  face 
of  neglect,  contempt,  and  persecution.  Their 
numbers,  in  the  substantial  middle  classes  of 
life,  increased  with  singular  rapidity.  There 
were  no  prerogatives  to  invite  an  aristocracy,  no 
vast  establishments  to  attract  the  indigent. — 
There  was  nothing  but  the  rewards  of  labor  and 
the  hope  of  freedom. 

But  at  length  this  hope,  never  adequately  satis 
fied,  began  to  turn  into  doubt  and  despair.  The 
colonies  had  become  too  important  to  be  over 
looked  ; — their  government  was  a  prerogative 
too  important  to  be  left  in  their  own  hands  5 — 
and  the  legislation  of  the  mother  country  decid 
edly  assumed  a  form,  which  announced  to  the 
patriots,  that  the  hour  at  length  had  come,  when 
the  chains  of  the  great  discoverer  wrere  to  be 
avenged ;  the  sufferings  of  the  first  settlers  to  be 
compensated  ;  and  the  long  deferred  hopes  of 
humanity  were  to  be  fulfilled. 

You  need  not,  friends  and  fellow- citizens,  that 
I  should  dwell  upon  the  incidents  of  the  last 
great  act  in  the  colonial  drama.  This  very  place 
was  the  scene  of  some  of  the  earliest,  and  the 
most  memorable  of  them  ; — their  recollection  is 
a  part  of  the  inheritance  of  honor,  which  you 
have  received  from  your  fathers.  In  the  early 
councils,  and  first  struggles  of  the  great  revolu- 


28 

tionary  enterprise,  the  citizens  of  this  place 
were  among  the  most  prominent.  The  mea 
sures  of  resistance  which  were  projected  by  the 
patriots  of  Charlestown,  were  opposed  but  by 
one  individual.  An  active  co-operation  existed 
between  the  political  leaders  in  Boston  and  this 
place.  The  beacon  light,  which  was  kindled  in 
the  towers  of  Christ  Church,  in  Boston,  on 
the  night  of  the  eighteenth,  was  answered  from 
the  steeple  of  the  church,  in  which  we  are  now 
assembled.  The  intrepid  messenger,  who  was 
sent  forward  to  convey  to  HANCOCK  and  AD 
AMS  the  intelligence  of  the  approach  of  the  Bri 
tish  troops,  was  furnished  with  a  horse,  for  his 
eventful  errand,  by  a  respected  citizen  of  this 
place.  At  the  close  of  the  following  momentous 
day,  the  British  forces, — the  remnant  of  its  dis 
astrous  events, — found  refuge,  under  the  shades 
of  night,  upon  the  heights  of  Charlestown  5 — and 
there,  on  the  ever  memorable  seventeenth  of 
June,  that  great  and  costly  sacrifice,  in  the  cause 
of  freedom,  was  awfully  consummated  with  fire 
and  blood.  Xour  hill- tops  were  strew^ed  with 
the  illustrious  dead ;  your  peaceful  homes  were 
wrapped  in  devouring  flames  ;  the  fair  fruits  of  a 
century  and  a  half  of  civilized  culture,  were  re 
duced  to  a  heap  of  bloody  ashes ; — and  two 
thousand  men,  women,  and  children,  turned 


29 

houseless  upon  the  world.  With  the  exception 
of  the  ravages  of  the  nineteenth  of  April,  the 
chalice  of  woe  and  desolation,  was  in  this  man 
ner,  first  presented  to  the  lips  of  the  citizens  of 
Charlestown ;  and  they  were  called  upon,  at 
that  early  period,  to  taste  of  its  extreme  bitter 
ness.  Thus  devoted,  as  it  were,  to  the  cause, 
it  is  no  wronder  that  the  spirit  of  the  revolution 
should  have  taken  possession  of  their  bosoms, 
and  been  transmitted  to  their  children.  The 
American,  who,  in  any  part  of  the  union,  could 
forget  the  scenes  and  the  principles  of  the  revo- 
tion,  would  thereby  prove  himself  unworthy  of 
the  blessings,  which  he  enjoys  ;  but  the  citizen 
of  Charlestown,  who  could  be  cold  on  this  mo 
mentous  theme,  must  hear  a  voice  of  reproach 
from  the  walls,  which  were  reared  on  the  ashes 
of  the  seventeenth  of  June  ;  a  cry  from  the  very 
sods  of  the  sacred  hill,  where  our  fathers  shed 
their  blood. 

The  revolution  was  at  length  accomplished. 
The  political  separation  of  the  country  from 
Great  Britain,  was  effected  5  and  it  now  re 
mained  to  organize  the  liberty,  which  had  been 
reaped  on  bloody  fields  ; — to  establish,  in  the 
place  of  the  government,  whose  yoke  had  been 
thrown  off,  a  government  at  home,  which  should 
fulfil  the  great  design  of  the  revolution,  and  sat- 


30 

the  demands  of  the  friends  of  liberty  at 
large.  What  manifold  perils  awaited  the  step  ! 
The  danger  was  incalculable,  that  too  little  or 
too  much  would  be  done.  Smarting  under  the 
oppressions  of  a  government,  of  which  the  resi 
dence  was  remote,  and  the  spirit  alien  to  their 
feelings,  there  was  great  danger,  that  the  colo 
nies,  in  the  act  of  declaring  themselves  sovereign 
and  independent  states,  would  push  to  an  ex 
treme  the  prerogative  of  their  separate  inde 
pendence,  and  refuse  to  admit  any  authority, 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  particular  common 
wealths  which  they  severally  constituted.  On 
the  other  hand,  achieving  their  independence 
beneath  the  banners  of  the  continental  army,  as 
cribing,  and  justly,  no  small  portion  of  their 
vsuccess,  to  the  personal  qualities  of  the  beloved 
Father  of  his  Country,  there  was  danger  not 
less  eminent,  that  those,  who  perceived  the  evils 
of  the  opposite  extreme,  would  be  inclined  to 
confer  too  much  strength  on  one  general  govern 
ment  ;  and  would,  perhaps,  even  fancy  the  ne 
cessity  of  investing  the  hero  of  the  revolution,  in 
form,  with  that  sovereign  power,  which  his  per 
sonal  ascendancy  gave  him  in  the  hearts  of  his 
country.  Such  and  so  critical  was  the  alterna 
tive,  which  the  organization  of  the  new  govern 
ment  presented,  and  on  the  successful  issue  of 


31 

which,  the  entire  benefit  of  this  great  movement 
in  human  affairs,  was  to  depend. 

The  first  effort  to  solve  the  great  problem, 
was  made  in  the  progress  of  the  revolution,  and 
was  without  success.  The  articles  of  confede 
ration  verged  to  the  extreme  of  an  union  too 
wreak  for  its  great  purposes ;  and  the  moment 
the  pressure  of  the  war  was  withdrawn,  the  in 
adequacy  of  this  first  project  of  a  government 
was  felt.  The  United  States  found  themselves 
overwhelmed  with  debt,  without  the  means  of 
paying  it.  Rich  in  the  materials  of  an  extensive 
commerce,  they  found  their  ports  crowded  with 
foreign  ships,  and  themselves  without  the  power 
to  raise  a  revenue.  Abounding  in  all  the  ele 
ments  of  national  wealth,  they  wanted  resources, 
to  defray  the  ordinary  expenses  of  government. 

For  a  moment,  and  to  the  hasty  observer, 
this  last  effort  for  the  establishment  of  freedom, 
.had  failed.  No  fruit  had  sprung  from  this  lavish 
expenditure  of  treasure  and  blood.  We  had 
changed  the  powerful  protection  of  the  mother 
country,  into  a  cold  and  jealous  amity,  if  not  into 
a  slumbering  hostility.  The  oppressive  princi 
ples,  against  which  our  fathers  had  struggled, 
were  succeeded  by  more  oppressive  realities. 
The  burden  of  the  British  navigation- act  was 
removed,  but  it  was  followed  by  the  impossibil- 


32 

ity  of  protecting  our  shipping,  by  a  navigation- 
law  of  our  own.  A  state  of  general  prosperity, 
existing  before  the  revolution,  was  succeeded  by 
universal  exhaustion  ; — and  a  high  and  indignant 
tone  of  militant  patriotism,  into  universal  des 
pondency. 

It  remained  then  to  give  its  last  great  effect  to 
all  that  had  been  done,  since  the  discovery  of 
America,  to  establish  the  cause  of  liberty  in  the 
western  hemisphere,  and  by  another  more  delib 
erate  effort,  to  organize  a  government,  by  which, 
not  only  the  present  evils,  under  which  the 
country  was  suffering,  should  be  remedied,  but 
the  final  design  of  Providence  should  be  fulfilled. 
Such  was  the  task,  which  devolved  on  the  coun 
cil  of  sages,  who  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  on 
the  second  Monday  of  May,  1787,  of  which, 
General  Washington  was  elected  President,  and 
over  whose  debates  your  townsman,  Mr  Gor- 
ham,  presided,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
the  whole,  during  the  discussion  of  the  plan  of 
the  federal  constitution. 

The  very  first  step  to  be  taken,  was  one  of 
pain  and  regret.  The  old  confederation  was  to 
be  given  up.  What  misgivings  and  grief  must 
not  this  preliminary  sacrifice  have  occasioned  to 
the  patriotic  members  of  the  convention  !  They 
were  attached,  and  with  reason,  to  its  simple  ma- 


33 

jesty.  It  was  weak  then,  but  it  had  been  strong 
enough  to  carry  the  colonies  through  the  storms 
of  the  revolution.  Some  of  the  great  men,  who 
led  up  the  forlorn  hope  of  their  country,  in  the 
hour  of  her  dearest  peril,  had  died  in  its  defence. 
Its  banner  over  us  had  been  not  love  alone,  but 
triumph  and  joy.  Could  not  a  little  inefficiency 
be  pardoned  to  a  Union,  with  which  France  had 
made  an  alliance,  and  England  had  made  peace? 
Could  the  proposed  new  government  do  more  or 
better  things  than  this  had  done1?  And  above  all, 
when  the  flag  of  the  old  thirteen  was  struck, 
which  had  never  been  struck  in  battle,  who 
could  give  assurance,  that  the  hearts  of  the  peo 
ple  could  be  rallied  to  another  banner  ? 

Such  were  the  misgivings  of  some  of  the  great 
men  of  that  day, — the  Henrys,  the  Gerrys,  and 
other  eminent  anti-federalists,  to  whose  scruples, 
it  is  time  that  justice  should  be  done.  They 
were  the  sagacious  misgivings  of  wise  men,  the 
just  forebodings  of  brave  men  ;  who  were  deter 
mined  not  to  defraud  posterity  of  the  blessings, 
for  which  they  had  all  suffered,  and  for  which 
some  of  them  had  fought. 

The  members  of  that  convention,  in  going 
about  the  great  work  before  them,  deliberately 
laid  aside  the  means,  by  which  all  preceding  le 
gislators,  had  aimed  to  accomplish  a  like  work, 
5 


34 

In  founding  a  strong  and  efficient  government,  ad 
equate  to  the  raising  up  of  a  powerful  and  pros 
perous  people,  their  first  step  was,  to  reject  the 
institutions  to  which  other  governments  traced 
their  strength  and  prosperity.  The  world  had 
settled  down  into  the  sad  belief,  that  a  heredi 
tary  monarch  was  necessary  to  give  strength  to 
the  executive.  The  framers  of  our  constitution 
provided  for  an  elective  chief  magistrate,  chosen 
every  four  years.  Every  other  country  had  been 
betrayed  into  the  admission  of  a  distinction  of 
ranks  in  society,  under  the  absurd  impression,  that 
privileged  orders  are  necessary  to  the  permanence 
of  the  social  system.  The  framers  of  our  consti 
tution,  established  everything,  on  the  pure  natu 
ral  basis  of  an  uniform  equality  of  the  elective 
franchise,  to  be  exercised  by  all  the  citizens,  at 
fixed  and  short  intervals.  In  other  countries,  it 
had  been  thought  necessary  to  constitute  some  one 
political  centre,  toward  which  all  political  power 
should  tend,  and  at  which,  in  the  last  resort,  it 
should  be  exercised.  The  framers  of  the  consti 
tution  devised  a  scheme  of  confederate  and  re 
presentative  sovereign  republics,  united  on  a 
happy  distribution  of  powers,  which,  reserving 
to  the  separate  states  all  the  political  functions, 
essential  to  the  public  peace  and  private  justice, 
—bestowed  upon  the  general  government,  those 


35 

and  those  only,  required  for  the  service  of  the 
whole. 

Thus  was  completed  the  great  revolutionary 
movement  5  thus  was  perfected  that  mature  or 
ganization  of  a  free  system,  destined  to  stand 
forever  as  the  examplar  of  popular  government. 
Thus  was  discharged  the  duty  of  our  fathers  to 
themselves,  to  the  country,  to  the  world. 

The  example  thus  set  up,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
nations,  was  instantly  and  widely  felt.  It  was 
immediately  made  visible  to  sagacious  observers, 
that  a  constitutional  age  had  begun.  It  was  in 
the  nature  of  things,  that,  where  the  former  evil 
existed  in  its  most  inveterate  form,  the  reaction 
should  also  be  the  most  violent.  Hence  the  dread 
ful  excesses,  that  marked  the  progress  of  the 
French  revolution,  and  for  a  while,  almost  made 
the  name  of  liberty  odious.  But  it  is  not  less  in 
the  nature  of  things,  that,  when  the  most  indispu 
table  and  enviable  political  blessings  stand  illus 
trated  before  the  world, — not  merely  in  specu 
lation  and  in  theory,  but  in  living  practice  and 
bright  example, — the  nations  of  the  earth,  in  pro 
portion  as  they  have  eyes  to  see,  and  ears  to  hear, 
and  hands  to  grasp,  should  insist  on  imitating  the 
example.  Imitate  it  they  have,  and  imitate  they 
will.  France  clung  to  the  hope  of  constitu 
tional  liberty  through  thirty  years  of  appalling 


36 

tribulation,  and  now  enjoys  the  freest  Constitu 
tion  in  Europe.  Spain,  Portugal,  the  two  Ital 
ian  Kingdoms,  and  several  of  the  German  States 
have  entered  on  the  same  path.  Their  progress 
has  been  and  must  be  various  ;  modified  by  cir 
cumstances  ;  by  the  interests  and  passions  of 
Governments  and  men,  and  in  some  cases  seem 
ingly  arrested.  But  their  march  is  as  sure  as  fate. 
If  we  believe  at  all  in  the  political  revival  of 
Europe,  there  can  be  no  really  retrograde  move 
ment  in  this  cause,  and  that  which  seems  so,  in 
the  revolutions  of  government,  is  like  those  of 
the  heavenly  bodies,  a  part  of  their  eternal  orbit. 
There  can  be  no  retreat,  for  the  great  exam- 
plar  must  stand,  to  convince  the  hesitating  na 
tions,  under  every  reverse,  that  the  reform  they 
strive  at,  is  practicable,  is  real,  is  within  their 
reach.  Institutions  may  fluctuate ;  they  may 
be  pushed  onward,  as  they  were  in  France,  to  a 
premature  simplicity,  and  fall  back  to  a  simili 
tude  of  the  ancient  forms.  But  there  is  an  ele 
ment  of  popular  strength  abroad  in  the  world, 
stronger  than  forms  and  institutions,  and  daily 
growing  in  power.  A  public  opinion  of  a  new 
kind  has  arisen  among  men, — the  opinion  of  the 
civilized  world.  Springing  into  existence  on  the 
shores  of  our  own  continent,  it  has  grown  with 
our  growth  and  strengthened  with  our  strength  ; 


37 

till  now,  this  moral  giant,  like  that  of  the  an 
cient  poet,  marches  along  the  earth  and  across 
the  ocean,  but  his  front  is  among  the  stars.  The 
course  of  the  day  does  not  weary,  nor  the  dark 
ness  of  night  arrest  him.  He  grasps  the  pillars 
of  the  temple  where  oppression  sits  enthroned, 
not  groping  and  benighted,  like  the  strong  man  of 
old,  to  be  crushed  himself  beneath  the  fall ;  but 
trampling,  in  his  strength,  on  its  massy  ruins. 
Under  the  influence,  I  might  almost  say  the 
unaided  influence,  of  public  opinion,  formed  and 
nourished  by  our  example,  three  wonderful  rev 
olutions  have  broken  out  in  a  generation.  That 
of  France,  not  yet  consummated,  has  left  that 
country,  (which  it  found  in  a  condition  scarcely 
better  than  Turkey),  in  the  possession  of  the 
blessings  of  a  representative  constitutional  gov 
ernment.  Another  revolution  has  emancipated 
the  American  possessions  of  Spain,  by  an  almost 
unassisted  action  of  moral  causes.  Nothing  but 
the  strong  sense  of  the  age,  that  a  government 
like  that  of  Ferdinand  ought  not  to  subsist,  over 
regions  like  those  wThich  stretch  to  the  South  of 
us,  on  the  continent,  could  have  sufficed  to  bring 
about  their  emancipation,  against  all  the  obstacles, 
which  the  state  of  society  among  them,  opposes 
at  present,  to  regulated  liberty  and  safe  independ 
ence.  When  Mr  Canning  said  of  the  emancipa- 


38 

lion  of  these  States,  that  "He  had  called  inter 
existence  a  new  world  in  the  West,"  he  spoke 
as  wisely  as  the  artist,  who,  having  tipped  the 
forks  of  a  conductor  with  silver,  should  boast 
that  he  had  created  the  lightning,  which  it 
calls  down  from  the  clouds.  But  the  greatest 
triumph  of  public  opinion  is  the  revolution  of 
Greece.  The  spontaneous  sense  of  the  friends 
of  liberty  at  home  and  abroad, — without  armies, 
without  navies,  without  concert,  and  acting  only 
through  the  simple  channels  of  ordinary  commu 
nication,  principally  the  press,  has  rallied  the 
governments  of  Europe  to  this  ancient  and  favor 
ed  soil  of  freedom.  Pledged  to  remain  at  peace, 
they  have  been  driven,  by  the  force  of  public  sen 
timent,  into  the  war.  Leagued  against  the  cause 
revolution,  as  such,  they  have  been  compelled  to 
send  their  armies  and  navies,  to  fight  the  battles 
of  revolt.  Dignifying  the  barbarous  oppressor  of 
Christian  Greece,  with  the  title  of  "  ancient  and 
faithful  ally,"  they  have  been  constrained,  by 
the  outraged  feeling  of  the  civilized  world,  to 
burn  up,  in  time  of  peace,  the  navy  of  their  ally, 
with  all  his  antiquity  and  all  his  fidelity  ;  and  to 
cast  the  broad  shield  of  the  Holy  Alliance  over 
a  young  and  turbulent  republic. 

This  bright  prospect  may  be  clouded  in  ;  the 
powers  of  Europe,  which  have  reluctantly  taken, 


39 

may  speedily  abandon  the  field.  Some  inglorious 
composition  may  yet  save  the  Ottoman  empire 
from  dissolution,  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  liberty  of 
Greece,  and  the  power  of  Europe.  But  such 
are  not  the  indications  of  things.  The  prospect 
is  fair,  that  the  political  regeneration,  which 
commenced  in  the  West,  is  now  going  backward 
to  resuscitate  the  once  happy  and  long  deserted 
regions  of  the  older  world.  The  hope  is  not 
now  chimerical,  that  those  lovely  islands,  the 
flower  of  the  Levant, — the  shores  of  that  re 
nowned  sea,  around  which  all  the  associations 
of  antiquity  are  concentrated,  are  again  to  be 
brought  back  to  the  sway  of  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity.  Happily  the  interest  of  the  great  powers 
of  Europe  seem  to  beckon  them  onward  in  the 
path  of  humanity.  The  half  deserted  coasts  of 
Syria  and  Egypt,  the  fertile  but  almost  desolated 
Archipelago,  the  empty  shores  of  Africa,  the 
granary  of  ancient  Rome,  seem  to  offer  them 
selves  as  a  ready  refuge  for  the  crowded,  starv 
ing,  discontented  millions  of  Western  Europe. 
No  natural  nor  political  obstacle  opposes  itself 
to  their  occupation.  France  has  long  cast  a 
wistful  eye  on  Egypt.  Napoleon  derived  the 
idea  of  his  expedition,  which  was  set  down  to  the 
unchastened  ambition  of  a  revolutionary  soldier, 
from  a  memoir  found  in  the  cabinet  of  Louis 


40 

XVI.  England  has  already  laid  her  hand,  an 
arbitrary  but  a  civilized  and  Christian  hand,  on 
Malta  and  the  Ionian  Isles,  and  Cyprus,  Rhodes 
and  Candia  must  soon  follow, — while  it  is  not  be 
yond  the  reach  of  hope,  that  a  representative  re 
public  may  be  established  in  Central  Greece  and 
the  adjacent  islands.  In  this  way,  and  with  the 
example  of  what  has  here  been  done,  to  extend 
the  reign  of  civilization  and  freedom,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  anticipate,  that  many  generations 
will  not  pass,  before  the  same  benignant  influ 
ence  will  revisit  the  awakened  east,  and  thus 
fulfil,  in  the  happiest  sense,  the  vision  of  COL 
UMBUS,  by  restoring  a  civilized  population  to 
the  primitive  seats  of  our  holy  faith. 

Fellow- Citizens,  the  eventful  pages  in  the 
volume  of  human  fortune,  are  opening  upon  us, 
with  sublime  rapidity  of  succession.  It  is  two 
hundred  years  this  summer,  since  a  few  of  that 
party,  who  in  1628,  commenced,  in  Salem,  the 
first  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  were  sent  by 
Governor  Endicott,  to  explore  the  spot,  where 
we  stand.  They  found  that  one  pioneer,  of  the 
name  of  WALFORD,  had  gone  before  them,  in 
the  march  of  civilization,  and  had  planted  himself 
among  the  numerous  and  warlike  savages  in  this 
quarter.  From  them,  the  native  lords  of  the 
soil,  these  first  hardy  adventurers  derived  their 


41 

title  to  the  lands,  on  which  they  settled  ;  and  by 
the  arts  of  civilization  and  peace,  opened  the 
way  for  the  main  body  of  the  colonists  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  under  Governor  WINTHROP,  who 
two  years  afterwards,  by  a  coincidence  which 
you  will  think  worth  naming,  arrived  in  Mystic 
River,  and  pitched  his  patriarchal  tent,  on  Ten 
Hills,  upon  the  seventeenth  day  of  June,  1630. 
Massachusetts,  at  that  moment,  consisted  of  six 
huts  at  Salem,  and  one  at  this  place.  It  seems 
but  a  span  of  time,  as  the  mind  ranges  over  it. 
A  venerable  individual  is  living,  at  the  seat  of 
the  first  settlement,  whose  life  covers  one  half 
of  the  entire  period :  but  what  a  destiny  has 
been  unfolded  before  our  country  !  — what  events 
have  crowded  your  annals! — what  scenes  of 
thrilling  interest  and  eternal  glory  have  signal 
ized  the  very  spot  where  we  stand ! 

In  that  unceasing  march  of  things,  which  calls 
forward  the  successive  generations  of  men  to 
perform  their  part  on  the  stage  of  life,  we  at 
length  are  summoned  to  appear.  Our  fathers 
have  passed  their  hour  of  visitation  ; — how  wor 
thily,  let  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  our  happy 
land,  and  the  security  of  our  firesides,  attest.  Or 
if  this  appeal  be  too  weak  to  move  us,  let  the  el 
oquent  silence  of  yonder  venerated  heights, — let 
the  column,  which  is  there  rising  in  simple  ma- 
6 


jesty,  recall  their  venerated  forms,  as  they  toiled, 
in  the  hasty  trenches,  through  the  dreary  watch 
es  of  that  night  of  expectation,  heaving  up  the 
sods,  where  they  lay  in  peace  and  in  honor,  ere 
the  following  sun  had  set.  The  turn  has  come  to 
us.  The  trial  of  adversity  wras  theirs  :  the  trial 
of  prosperity  is  ours.  Let  us  meet  it  as  men 
who  know  their  duty,  and  prize  their  blessings. 
Our  position  is  the  most  enviable,  the  most  re 
sponsible,  which  men  can  fill.  If  this  generation 
does  its  duty,  the  cause  of  constitutional  freedom 
is  safe.  If  we  fail :  if  we  fail ; — not  only  do  we 
defraud  our  children  of  the  inheritance  which  we 
received  from  our  fathers,  but  we  blast  the  hopes 
of  the  friends  of  liberty  throughout  our  continent, 
throughout  Europe,  throughout  the  w^orld,  to 
the  end  of  time. 

History  is  not  without  her  examples  of  hard 
fought  fields,  where  the  banner  of  liberty  has 
floated  triumphantly  on  the  wildest  storm  of 
battle.  She  is  without  her  examples  of  a  peo 
ple,  by  whom  the  dear-bought  treasure  has  been 
wisely  employed  and  safely  handed  down.  The 
eyes  of  the  world  are  turned  for  that  example  to 
us.  It  is  related  by  an  ancient  historian,*  of 
that  Brutus  who  slew  Caesar,  that  he  threw 
himself  on  his  sword,  after  the  disastrous  battle 

*Deo  Cassius,  lib.  XLVII.  in  Cn. 


43 

of  Phillippi,  with  the  bitter  exclamation,  that  he 
had  followed  virtue  as  a  substance,  but  found  it 
a  name.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  there 
are,  at  this  moment,  noble  spirits  in  the  elder 
world,  who  are  anxiously  watching  the  march  of 
our  institutions,  to  learn  whether  liberty,  as 
they  have  been  told,  is  a  mockery,  a  pretence, 
and  a  curse,  or  a  blessing,  for  which  it  becomes 
them  to  brave  the  rack,  the  scaffold,  and  the 
scimitar. 

Let  us  then,  as  we  assemble,  on  the  birthday 
of  the  nation,  as  we  gather  upon  the  green  turf, 
once  wet  with  precious  blood,  let  us  devote  our 
selves  to  the  sacred  cause  of  constitutional  liber 
ty.  Let  us  abjure  the  interests  and  passions, 
which  divide  the  great  family  of  American  free 
men.  Let  the  rage  of  party  spirit  sleep  today. 
Let  us  resolve,  that  our  children  shall  have 
cause  to  bless  the  memory  of  their  fathers,  as 
we  have  cause  to  bless  the  memory  of  ours. 


DESK 


BORROWBD 


k 


LOAN  DEPT. 


APR863 


21A-50m-4,'60 
(A9562slO)476B 


JUNl9'6lT9W 


.General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


